Cain (18 page)

“
Cain…I was wondering
about what Spencer said. He said that you were going to see about a
woman. Is it Alyssa? If it is, do you think you can tell her thanks
for me? She saved my life and she made sure that…I didn’t see
anything. Alyssa made sure that when Father came into the room and
drew his gun, I never saw anything.”

Cain had a great deal to thank Alyssa
for. Shielding his sister from watching the police take out her
father was just one of many things. In the two weeks that he’d
known Alyssa, she’d done more for his sisters in terms of love and
understanding than their mother had done in all their lives. Cain
hoped to Christ Alyssa took him back. He didn’t know what he was
going to do without her.

“
I’ll tell her, Jazzie. I
don’t know if she’ll speak to me, but I will let her know how much
you appreciate what she’s done. You rest now, and in the morning
I’ll take you back home. And Quinn, don’t even think about living
in that cottage. I want you at the main house.”

With a small laugh, she assured him
that she’d move back in with him, but that she was not sleeping in
the brown room across from Jazzie. “I swear, Cain, it looks like
someone fell into fresh mud, wore it in the room, and smeared it on
everything in there. Looks just like brown poop if you ask
me.”

“
All right, you don’t have
to sleep in there. I’ll have it remodeled if it’s that bad. Pick
another room and we’ll work from there.”

“
No, keep it. Sin will
love it. It’s all dark and dreary and weird like that fog movie
is.”

They laughed at that. Sin was in
special services, and while they all loved her, she could be a
little on the intense side.

“
We’ll see. I have to go
and hope Alyssa won’t hurt me while she cusses me out. I love you,
Jazzie. So very much.”

“
I love you too, Cain. And
don’t fuck this up.”

Sage advice, he thought. Very sage. He
really hoped he didn’t fuck this up with Alyssa.

~CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN~

“
I’m not ten years old and
I would very much like it if you stopped treating me like I am. I’m
a grown woman. And I—”

“
Then how about you start
acting like one? I swear to Christ you are the most…do you have any
idea how terrified I was when I hear those gun shots? Christ,
woman. Six fucking shots and—”

“
Andrew Wayne Miller, you
will watch your language in my home. And you…” Thomas pointed at
her. “You will sit down before you fall down. I have never been
so…if you plan to conduct meetings like this in the office, I
shudder to think what the staffing will wonder. Andrew, I said to
sit!”

Alyssa could tell Thomas was mad. But
damn, it so was she. She was going to sit, but not if he told her
to, especially if he told her to in that tone. Damn it, her back
hurt.

In the past two weeks, she’d been
beaten, cut, slapped around, and had had sex on a tile floor. The
latter hadn’t been all that much of a hardship, but still, it was
on her list and she was not taking it off. Gingerly, she sat in the
chair only to hop up again when the front doorbell chimed. Not
another relative of Thomas. She didn’t think she could take another
person…It was Cain Waite.

“
What’s he doing here?
Thomas? I swear if you called him here for whatever reason you can
just…you can just un-call him.”

Cain looked just too good standing
there. His hair was tousled just right and the suit he had on
reminded her of gray clouds on rainy days, the kind where you just
wanted to stay in your jammies and snuggle up with a good book or a
weepy movie, or both.

“
Un-call? I don’t even
think that’s a word. And as for what I’m doing here, I’m your
physician. And as such, I can tell you right now there isn’t a
damned thing wrong with your lungs. I could hear you in the
driveway.”

Alyssa flushed. Okay, she’d been loud,
but he still didn’t have any reason to be here. Before she could
tell him so, Thomas spoke.

“
It is still my home,
miss, and I will have who I want when I want. And right now, I want
him to be here. He will examine you and you will co—if you say a
single word, just one, miss, I will quit so quickly that you will
not know what hit you. Sit.” Alyssa sat.

When Thomas used that tone, it was as
if her father had been standing there. She started to stand again,
but he simply looked sharply at her. When Drew laughed, she was
ready to blast him when Thomas started in on him.

“
And you, young man, I did
not pay for your fine education for you to talk like a guttersnipe.
I would appreciate it if you would refrain from that sort of
language in my presence. Also, I would have a word with you while
the doctor examines Miss Alyssa.”

“
Grandda, you really can’t
expect me to be happy about what happened today. She could have
been killed. I could have been killed. She is headstrong and needs
her ass…her bottom blistered.”

“
You just try it, buck-o.
In fact, you’re fired. And Cain…Dr. Waite…he’s not examining me.
I’ve told you several times that—”

“
Enough. I have spoken and
you will obey. I have…you are more your father’s daughter than even
he thought, I believe. He would argue just to pass the time and I
believe you would have given him a good run for his
money.”

“
Thank you.”

“
It was not meant as a
compliment and you very well know it. Now, I have a migraine and I
wish for you to be silent for…for a day. He will examine you and
you will cooperate. I’ll not have any more nonsense this evening.
Have I made myself perfectly clear, young lady?”

“
Yes,” she hissed at him.
“But you will understand that I’m not happy about this or him. I
thought you said someone was coming that would help me.”

“
And I have provided you
with help. Now, Andrew, let us leave these two to this. I have a
need for a brandy.”

Alyssa glared at the two men as they
walked out of the room. When the door shut with a quiet click, she
turned to Cain. He was smiling. It was all she could do not to walk
over and punch him right in the nose.

“
I didn’t ask him to bring
you here and if you want to leave, he’d be all right with it. There
isn’t any reason for you to be here anyway. I’m fine.”

“
I don’t mind being here.
And we both know you are not fine. I want to examine you. We can
start with your back. Quinn said you took a blow from my father
there. May I see it?”

Alyssa stood up. She was fine sitting
or standing. It was getting there that caused her pain. She tried
to stop the look of pain she was sure he was seeing, but there was
no help for it. She stood next to the chair and waited for
him.

“
I’ll need you to take off
your shirt. I can’t see your back properly with it in the
way.”

There in lay the problem. She couldn’t
take the shirt off. Not without considerable pain, that was. She
had tried to take the shirt off in the bathroom earlier, but she
couldn’t raise her arms up over her head enough to manage it. And
she knew admitting it would be another failure in Cain’s eyes, she
was sure. Turning around to face Cain, she looked down at the
floor. There was no way she wanted to see his aggravation at her
again.

“
I can’t. I…the soreness
is just across my shoulder blades and I can’t lift up my arms
enough to pull it over my head. Can’t you just…I don’t know, just
lift it from the bottom and have a look? It’s really not all that
bad. I don’t know why Thomas is making such a fuss about
it.”

Alyssa was startled when he lifted her
chin up. More so when she saw what she thought was desire in his
eyes. But she knew that couldn’t be right, unless he just wanted to
have sex with her again. That thought made her shift on her feet
and a feeling of need moved over her body. Pulling her chin away
from his fingers, she started to step away.

“
Alyssa, I want you to
look at me. Please?” It was the please, she decided, that had her
turning back to him. It had sounded so sad, so hurt, that she
looked back at him in spite of her need to get away.

She looked up at him. She would forever
be fascinated with his eyes. They were beautiful and rich in color.
Alyssa knew that she would never be able to look at jade again
without thinking of him. And those curls. She actually had to clasp
her fist shut so that she wouldn’t reach up and brush them from his
eyes. Reaching inside of herself, she tried to find something,
anything that would distract her from him, at least long enough
that she could get through this examination.

“
Cut it from my back. I
have some scissors here somewhere. Just cut if off and let’s get
this over with. I have things to do.”

Cain stepped toward her and she thought
he was going to get something to cut the shirt off her as she had
asked. But he only moved closer to her. When she managed to step
back about half a step before running into the chair behind her, he
closed the distance between them.

“
Thomas is correct, you
know. You are very argumentative. Alyssa, may I kiss you? I’ve
missed your taste and am only just now realizing how much I need
more of you.”

Alyssa felt her heart jump in her
chest. Then she thought he was trying to hurt her, get back at her
for hurting his family. She opened her mouth to tell him what he
could do with his sense of humor when he closed his mouth over
hers.

~~~

Cain felt her stiffen beneath him. Her
mouth was firm and hard and he wondered if he was making a mistake
in leaving himself and his body parts so exposed. But her hands on
his forearms were soft and gentle. Moving closer to her and
wrapping his hands around her, he pulled Alyssa close to his body,
careful of her back.

He had only meant to brush his mouth
over hers, a simple taste, a small kiss. But the moment he touched
her, felt her breath over his skin, he was lost.

“
Alyssa, please? Let me
in, let me taste of you.”

This time, when he touched his lips to
hers, she ran her tongue along his lips, leaving them moist.
Licking the taste of her from his mouth, Cain groaned deep within
his chest, ran his hand through her hair, and pulled her to him.
She was heaven, soft and warm, delicious and spicy. Their tongues
dueled with each other, sliding along and through their mouths as
they clung to each other. When Alyssa’s hands curled in his hair,
Cain lifted her up and her legs wrapped around him just as she
jerked away from him. Pulling hard on his hair, she cried
out.

“
Alyssa, honey, I’m so
sorry. I shouldn’t have…let me go and I’ll put you down. You can do
it, honey. Loosen your grip on my hair and I’ll be able to move
again.”

“
I can’t. Just let me…I
need a minute. I’m sorry I’m hurting you, but the pain is
horrendous.”

Slowly, by degrees, she moved her
fingers from his scalp. She wasn’t really hurting him. It was the
sudden change in what they had been doing from sensual heat to
excruciating pain in a second.

Once she was standing next to him, Cain
still holding her, he waited until her breathing was normal before
he stepped back. He needed to look at her back now more than ever.
“If your offer still stands, I’d like to cut away your shirt now. I
think I need to take a good look at it and make sure there isn’t
anything more to what I’ve been told.”

“
It’s really just a
bruise, I’m sure. He hit me…I don’t know what he hit me with, but
it barely hurt at the time. It’s only now that I can feel it. I’m
sure it’s nothing.”

Cain could hear the pain in her voice
and something else. Something he wasn’t sure of. If he had to
guess, he would say she was embarrassed. Of what he couldn’t
imagine, but that was what he heard. Getting his scissors out of
his bag, he stepped up behind her and started to cut through the
thin material.

As soon as her shoulder blade was
exposed, Cain could see that it was much more than he’d first
thought. The ugly bruise went across her scapula and over her
spine. The more he cut away of the shirt, the more he couldn’t
believe she was standing up, much less walking around. The mark was
about eight inches wide and went the entire width of her back from
her right shoulder to just below her ribs on her left. The skin was
not cut, but it was blue and red. He knew that she was in a great
deal more pain than she was letting on.

“
Alyssa, I want to take
you somewhere where you can lie down. This is really bad,
sweetheart, and I want to test to see if any ribs are broken. I
don’t think there are, but I want to make sure. I understand from
Thomas that you can’t go to the hospital, but I can take you to the
office. I have everything I need there to make you more
comfortable.”

He wanted more than anything to scream
and yell at someone. He wanted to go and find the man responsible
for her injuries and beat the living shit out of him. More than
anything, Cain wanted to hold her in his arms until it was all
better.

“
I can’t. I don’t think I
can ride in a car again. Can’t you just give me something for the
pain? I’ll be all right in the morning. You can leave, you know?
Just tell me what to do and I’ll fix it myself.”