KAGE (KAGE Trilogy #1) (32 page)

Kage reached down and squeezed my ass cheek so hard it took my mind off of the other pain. Then he moved inside me just enough to make me vocal again. He really seemed to get turned on when I made noises.

“This is my ass,” he growled.

I nodded, but that wasn’t good enough for him.

“Say it, Jamie.” He moved faster and harder, the friction burning me up.

“Your ass,” I panted out. “No one else’s.”

“I’m gonna use your cherry ass to stroke my cock. Show you what it means to be with me.”

I reached down and started jerking off, his words lighting a fire in my belly.

He started pounding me hard then, grabbing onto my hips with both hands and banging into me like he truly wanted to do damage. He echoed my higher-pitched cries of pain with his own low grunts of pleasure. I noticed belatedly that I was getting really loud, and that was something I never did. But I couldn’t help it. He was forcing it out of me.

He used his powerful arms to slam me down onto his cock at the same time his hips were driving it up into me. It was brutal, and far more painful than I had dared to imagine, but somehow it satisfied a need I didn’t even know I had. I stared up into his eyes, balled up my fists and twisted them into the sheets, and just held on as he used my body however he liked.

“Anybody touches you, I’ll kill them.” His voice was rough with passion, and with rage. I hadn’t expected the rage. “Do you understand me? I’ll fucking kill them.”

“I understand. Yes. Oh, God, Kage. Yes. Yes.” The man was hitting me just right. That’s all the excuse I had for saying the shit I was saying, because I was agreeing to back him if he committed murder— giving him my unconditional permission to kill anyone who touched me. But God, it felt that fucking good.

Without warning or apology, he pulled out of me, flipped me over, and banded his arm so tightly around my chest I could barely breathe. Then he rammed his cock into me from behind, filling me so completely I thought it would rip me in half. He battered my tender ass until tears squeezed from the corners of my eyes, and still I begged for more. Needed more.

I wondered if this would be the death of me— getting fucked by Michael Kage. It was the most physically demanding thing I’d ever endured. Even the grueling sled drills I dreaded during our workouts paled in comparison. Kage stretched me, folded me, held me down. My muscles screamed for relief, and still I pleaded for him to fuck me harder. He had no qualms about obliging me, shuddering with pleasure as he used my body.

By the time he flipped me back over onto my back and drove his cock back into me, I was completely out of control. I’d never been so lost during sex. Every time before had been so conservative, so planned, so skilled. Using my expertise to get a girl off had been my thing. Not that I hadn’t truly enjoyed every minute of sex before, especially with Layla, but this was different.

This was straight-up animal fucking like I’d never experienced before. I had no idea what was going on half the time. At some point, when I’d ridden the edge of pleasure and pain for so long I couldn’t tell the difference anymore, Kage began to slow his rhythm, his thrusts becoming much more deliberate and thoughtful. Sweat dripped down his face and onto mine. A drop landed near my mouth, and I darted my tongue out to taste.

Kage grabbed the lube once more and squirted it into his right hand. Then he wrapped that hand around my erection. Then he lowered his body onto mine, trapping my dick and his hand between our sweaty bodies. He started kissing me passionately, making out with me, stealing my sanity. Loving me.

“Come on, baby,” he coaxed. “Come on.” Using his hand and our bellies, he massaged my cock in the most amazing way, and I found myself grinding my hips to get it just the way I wanted it, slipping around in the tight, lubed space until I was quivering for release. I was worn out, but still I pushed my tired muscles to strive for it.

Kage was still sheathed to the hilt in my ass, but he was barely rocking, kissing my lips, sucking my tongue, swallowing my moans. Sensing my impending orgasm, he lifted my hips off the bed and started fucking me again, so that he was hitting my most sensitive place on every thrust.

I came like that, with Kage’s hand milking every drop of semen out of me, onto my own belly and chest. He watched every second of my orgasm, every expression on my face, and I could feel it inside me when he blew.

In that moment, with our bodies joined, our faces open, and our hearts exposed, I finally saw the clue that I’d been missing. What I saw was that Kage
did
want to hurt me. Desperately. He needed to take all of the pain in his heart and unload it on me.

Because he was damaged. I didn’t know exactly what that damage was or just how deep it ran, but it was a big part of who he was. And I had to be willing to accept his pain, and strong enough to take it.

Only then would I ever be able to love him.

Later as we lay together in Kage’s bed, my back spooned against his front, he reached around and toyed with my necklace charm. I smiled dreamily, on the verge of sleep.

He ran his fingertip back and forth across it for a long time before he spoke.

“I want this,” he said, so quietly I almost missed it.

“My necklace?” I asked in a groggy voice.

“No.” He hesitated long enough that I turned over and looked at his face.

“What do you want?”

“This.” He grabbed my necklace again and flipped the Claddagh charm upside down.

My heart got all tingly and warm, and a goofy smile spread across my face. Then, when the reality of what he was asking sank in, I got shy. Bit my lip and looked up at him through my lashes, surprised to discover that I was flirting with him.

It scared me to death, but I wanted it, too.

“Here,” I told him. “You do the honors.”

He untied the rawhide, flipped the necklace over, and tied it back. Then he admired it for a long time, a hint of a smile on his tempting mouth. Eventually, I leaned over and kissed him.

He cleared his throat. “Did you enjoy the show tonight?”

I chuckled. “Show?
The Rockettes
is a show, Kage. That was a massacre.”

“No, it wasn’t,” he scoffed.

“What? Yes, it was. You totally dominated that guy. And the way you followed my orders… that was ridiculous. I still can’t believe it. You were right, though.” I touched the cut beside his eye, which didn’t seem so bad now that the blood was cleaned up. “I couldn’t stand seeing you get hurt. It tore me up.”

Kage’s expression turned serious. “Jamie, that wasn’t really a fight. That was just a show for you. I couldn’t really do any damage to the guy in the first round, because you wanted him taken out in the second. That meant I couldn’t really get in the zone. I had to keep it together… for you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.” He put his hand to my cheek and ran his thumb across my lip. “As for getting hit, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Not in that fight. But I just couldn’t really get into the zone without tearing him to pieces. I was just playing around killing time, and he landed a lucky shot.”

“Oh, I forgot about the kick. At the beginning of the fight.”

“Now that one was on purpose.”

“What?” I stared at him.

He shrugged. “I let him kick me.”

My mouth went slack in disbelief. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I like it.” He cocked his head to the side and looked me straight in the eyes. “It gets me in the mood.”

I didn’t have a response for that.

He leaned in and kissed me. I kissed him back, but my mind was preoccupied. I reached up to feel my necklace. Ran my fingers across it in the same way Kage had done earlier, feeling the texture, and wondering if I’d ever really get to know the guy who had just been officially declared my soulmate.

21

WHEN Kage and I pulled up in a cab just after noon, there were so many cars outside my family’s house it looked like Thanksgiving. My mother’s and father’s matching white sedans were inside the garage with the door open, my sister’s Mustang sat in the driveway beside what I assumed was her fiancé Chase’s pickup truck. There were two strange SUV’s parked along the road in front of the house.

The most interesting car of the bunch, however, was a little silver VW Cabriolet with a pair of miniature pink pom-poms hanging from the mirror. I had seen that car more times than I could count. It belonged to Layla.

What the hell was my ex-girlfriend doing at my mother’s house?

I didn’t get a chance to warn Kage, who had jumped out of the car and gone around to the trunk to get our luggage, because my parents rushed right out to greet us.

Mom looked good. I supposed I had expected the cancer to have altered her appearance, but she looked just the same as the last time I’d seen her. Maybe even better. Her copper hair glistened in the afternoon sunlight, and her freckles were dark enough that I knew she’d still been outside doing her spring and summer gardening.

“I see you’ve still been working in the yard,” I said, trying to keep my eyes from misting at the sight of her. “I forget how much I missed seeing that. Our yard at college barely has grass, and at our place in Vegas, it’s all concrete and glass.”

“Well, we do have the Grotto,” Kage pointed out.

“That’s true. You know, it sort of reminds me of the gazebo in our backyard.” I looked at Mom and Dad. “You guys are still decorating the gazebo, right?”

“Of course,” Mom said. “Come look. It’s even nicer this year.”

The four of us walked around the house to the backyard, admiring my mom’s flower beds on the way. I could tell already she had been hard at work.

“This is beautiful, Mrs. Atwood,” Kage said when we came around the corner and passed through the wrought iron archway we’d gotten when I was in high school.

“Thank you,” she said, beaming with pride as we admired her handiwork.

White Christmas lights were strung all along the gazebo, and the gardens were fuller and more beautiful than I ever remembered seeing them. Flowers surrounded the gazebo and ran along both sides of the walkway. Small beds jutted out from the foundation of the house. They had added a little wrought iron bench, and a stone fountain with a cherub spitting a stream of water into a round basin.

“It looks gorgeous out here, Mom.” I wrapped my arms around her from behind and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “And you’re still as short as ever.”

She laughed and slapped me on the arm. “I guess I’ve tried to concentrate more on the yard this year. Everything has a tendency to get to me, and it helps to have that outlet.”

My father chuckled beside us. “You have no idea how much money we’ve spent on it this year. But I think it’s paid off. And what else would we do with the money now that you kids are pretty much out of the house?”

“Um… Buy me a new car,” I teased.

“I can get you a car,” Kage said, and my parents and I all whipped our heads around so hard I’m surprised we didn’t get whiplash. My parents were shocked, but I was mortified. In my mind, what Kage had just said is,
“I’m fucking your son.”

My mom actually giggled like a little girl. “Wow, Jamie must be doing a great job.”

Kage didn’t even blink. “He is, Mrs. Atwood. You should be very proud. The stipend we pay him isn’t nearly what he’s worth. I guarantee you when he graduates from college, he’ll be pulling down high six figures easily.”

“Really?” My dad said, seemingly more impressed with me than he’d ever been.

“Yes, sir,” Kage said. “Especially with my reference. I haven’t told Jamie this yet, but I got some really good news this morning. Thanks in part to his efforts, I just got picked up for a fight in the UFC. It’s my shot at a contract. So if Jamie needs a car, I’ll get him a car.” He winked at me. “Think of it as a bonus.”

I couldn’t believe it. I opened my mouth and just started yelling. “Oh my God! Kage, that is so fucking awesome!”

My mom gasped at my language, and my father scowled, but I was so stoked I didn’t care. I threw my arms around Kage’s neck and gave him the hardest hug I could. He squeezed me back and laughed. I’d never seen him quite so happy. I think in that moment every bit of the darkness was gone from his eyes, and all I saw there was sheer joy.