Kai (A Dark Assassins Novel Book One) (12 page)

“Are you okay?” he whispered against her ear.

She smiled into her pillow at his concern for her.
 
“I’m fine, just hungry.
 
I’m going to go make breakfast.
 
Go back to sleep.”

He pressed a light kiss against her shoulder blades, and then her neck, and behind her ear, but didn’t release her.

Turning in his arms, she brushed a kiss against his lips while she circled his hard chest, savoring his firm muscles as her hands tingled with excitement.

With one last kiss, she slid out of his arms and giggled when he tried to reach for her again.
 
She turned as he groaned aloud, and found his eyes roaming her naked body.

“Can I borrow a shirt and boxers?” she asked.

“I’d rather you stay naked.”

“I want an omelet with tons of veggies and gooey cheese, but I’ll get naked for you later, okay?”

His hand darted out and circled around her wrist, pulling her close.
 
“One last kiss then?”

She cupped his face and placed a gentle kiss on his lips that quickly burned out of control.
 
For a split second, he became distracted, and she danced away from him and smiled in triumph.
 
His mouth turned down in a frown, but soon he lay back on the pillows and his eyes closed.
 
After several minutes, his breathing became deep and steady.

Pulling on a shirt and his discarded pair of sweats—the latter she had to roll the cuffs and the waistband several times in order to walk—she warmed as soon as she dressed.
 
With one last look at his face relaxed in sleep, she left the bedroom.

As she walked down the stairs and headed for the kitchen, she knew that she had a silly smile on her face.
 
Last night was the first time in her life that she’d acted on her instincts and did what she wanted, not what she expected of herself.

Being able to touch him, to pleasure him, had been a triumph for her.
 
Instead of pushing her needs to the background, he allowed her to take charge and be bold, and in return, she received much more than she ever thought she could.
 

Her attraction for him had built for months, and being able to act on her feelings, to learn what he liked and to see him lose control, had given her a power she’d never experienced.
 
It wasn’t control—she didn’t want to control him—but in a way, when he lost control and made love to her in the bathroom, and again in his bedroom, she felt sexy and capable.
 
In that moment, she’d become more than a scientist.

With a quick perusal of his enormous, modern kitchen, she found filters and the ground coffee and started a large pot, before she grabbed the ingredients from the refrigerator.
 
She made quick work of assembling breakfast, and while it cooked, blew a sigh of relief at the first sip of her coffee.
 
Before long, she had eaten the entire omelet and drank several cups of coffee, surprised by her appetite.
 
She then remembered the pierce of his teeth, twice, the night before, and shivered.

The click of a lock pulled her out of her thoughts, and she froze while she listened.
 
At first she thought Seth might be dropping by, but a teenager would never get out of bed at such an ungodly hour.
 
She started as a door she hadn’t noticed in the enormous house opened wide and an alarm beeped.

“Yeah, yeah, Kai and his fucking security,” a voice mumbled.

A colossal man angled through the door, a large duffel strapped to his side and the biggest suitcase she’d ever seen in his right hand, as he fumbled with the alarm.
 
After a couple of missed entries, he dropped his case at his feet and entered the right code and blew out a relieved breath.

“Do you have your own code, too?” she asked.

A growl rumbled through the kitchen, but when he spotted her sitting at the breakfast nook, he relaxed and the sound cut off.
 
For several silent minutes, his gaze roamed over her.
 
He stared her in the eyes for so long, she shifted on her seat, a little uncomfortable by his focus.

“That doesn’t happen to me very often, little girl,” he growled.

As she looked him over, she deduced that the man was a shifter.
 
He had dark-brown hair and he wore it longer than Kai’s clipped look.
 
She calculated his height at close to six and a half feet tall, sculpted muscles, wide shoulders, and fierce brown eyes that continued to glare at her.

He had a code to Kai’s house, so she figured that he worked as an assassin.
 
She could understand why they were recruited.
 
They were both in great shape, fast, and by the looks of it, could tear a human apart with very little effort.
 

Her brows drew down as she tried to understand what he meant by his statement, and then it clicked, and she smiled up at the stranger.
 
Acting out of character because her mood felt electrified from waking up in Kai’s arms, she teased the newcomer without thinking it through.

“What part?
 
The stumbling through the door, or a woman taking you by surprise?”

His growl echoed throughout the kitchen.
 
“You’re a smart ass, aren’t you, little girl?”

“Not normally,” she admitted.

His frown disappeared as a deep laugh rumbled through him, but she tensed as he dropped his bag and walked closer.
 
Stalked better described his advance, and before she had time to react, he bent in front of her and surveyed her face.
 
She had no idea what he might be searching for, but after a few moments, he hauled her against his body and stood, lifting her up with him.
 
His hands were so gigantic, they spanned her entire back.

“You’re a little close to my ass there, big guy,” she mumbled into his chest.

A sharp bark of laughter shook her, and he held her tighter to his chest.
 
The man was an inferno.
 
His skin was hot to the touch, and as he enveloped her in his arms, she flushed with his heat that surrounded her.

She squeaked as he buried his face in her neck, and wondered whether it must be an immortal thing as he inhaled.

His laughter froze as his arms tightened around her.
 
She wondered for a moment whether she smelled offensive in some way, but he continued to hold her.

“Take your hands off her.”

Oh, shit.
 
She tried to wiggle out of the giant’s hold, but the immovable mountain wouldn’t budge.

Her relationship with Kai had yet to be defined, and she didn’t want him to think that she could easily move on to another after the night they shared.
 
She remembered Kai’s warning about shifters too late, or she would have tried to sidestep or dissuade the man from becoming so intimate with her so quickly.
 
Wiggling and struggling in the man’s arms, she found she couldn’t move an inch.

Warm hands gripped her waist and with a slight tug, she found herself pressed against Kai, his chest to her back.
 
His scent enveloped her and she sagged against him in relief.
 
A movement from the corner of her eye brought her back to her current complication; the gigantic man looked as though he was ready pounce on them and steal her back.
 
The man stopped mid-stride and sniffed the air, and she watched a look of rage pass over his face.

“Fuck!”

The booming curse startled her, and she jerked in Kai’s arms.
 
Kai and the man locked eyes, and some silent communication happened between them, because in the next moment the man turned as if he didn’t have a care in the world and poured himself a cup of coffee.
 
She thought that she had been forgotten, and she blew out a breath of relief.
 
The man took a long drink before he turned back to them.
 
His eyes still perused her, but this time he wasn’t leering.

“Couldn’t wait for the competition, huh, Kai?”

His arms tightened around her waist and another silence passed between them.
 
“When have I ever been competition for you?”

The big man laughed, and settled his eyes back on her.
 
“I’m Reaper.”

“I’m—”

“Liv, yeah—I know, sweetheart.”

A loud snarl ripped from Kai’s throat, but his next words changed the atmosphere.
 
“The legends might be true.”

Reaper’s brows drew down in concentration, and this time when he gazed at Kai, he searched for something that would explain his cryptic comment.
 
It took him a moment, but when he understood what Kai meant, his eyebrows rose and he let out a low whistle.

“Got it.
 
Even if it was less serious, brother, I wouldn’t encroach.
 
You know that, right?” Reaper asked.

Reaper had been reacting to her teasing, especially when she called him out for not sensing that she had been in the kitchen.
 
It wasn’t attraction on his part.
 
She blushed as this realization dawned.

Kai relaxed his posture, and his hand loosened on her hip.
 
Although he acted as if he were jealous, she knew better.
 
For the most part, she was thrust into his life and had to be under his protection because of how she contributed to the weapon that could cause their destruction.
 
But he would be able to walk away with his heart intact after this was over, while each moment she spent with him assured her that she wouldn’t.
 

She studied the two men.
 
The difference was stark.
 
Reaper could grace the cover of any romance novel that she loved to read, and she could picture him as a hero in any book because of his dangerous looks.
 

Kai, although dangerous and dazzling, had a quiet, intense presence that had drawn her from the moment they met.
 
While she yearned to meet him and talk to him, to see whether it could be a mutual attraction, she settled on observing him, and spun daydreams around him.
 
Those daydreams had expanded in the few hours since she had woken, but she still tamped down any hope of a future with Kai.

“Would you like some breakfast, Reaper?” she asked.

“That would be great.
 
I’ve been traveling all night and didn’t have a chance to eat dinner.”

Kai and Reaper sat down at the table she vacated, and with low voices, started to talk.
 
She didn’t want to pry, so she turned toward the window and noticed the brightening day.

“The sun’s coming up,” she murmured, knowing he would hear her.
 

He nodded in acknowledgment, but turned his attention back to his friend.
 
She darted him a worried look, the first glance of him since he’d arrived downstairs.
 
He had dressed in a pair of jeans and a dark-blue pullover that brightened his eyes even more.
 
She smiled as he ran his hand through his hair as he spoke to Reaper in a low, intense timbre that she couldn’t understand from her distance.
 

When she turned back to the horizon, a flash of something caught her eye.
 
Whatever it had been, it moved fast, and when she closed her eyes to see whether she recognized anything else, she remembered a flash of long, blond hair flowing between the trees.
 
It was the only light among the darkness of the towering pines that were scattered around the mountain.
 
Without thinking, she hauled herself on the counter and pressed her face against the glass, trying to catch another glimpse.
 
But this time, there was no movement as she scoured the trees for the next few minutes.
 
She hadn’t noticed the silence in the kitchen.

“Love, what are you doing?”

His voice jerked her back to the present, and she turned to find Kai and Reaper looking at her with curiosity.
 
Scrambling off the counter, she stood and smoothed out the imaginary wrinkles on her sweats.

“Um, nothing.
 
I’ll make breakfast now.”

As she beat eggs, cut up potatoes and seared bacon for Reaper, her mind wandered to what she might have seen.

She didn’t think that her old company would send a shifter after her.
 
As far as she knew, they couldn’t control their experiment enough to make it viable.
 
And based on the fact that they had to capture their subjects, it would be odd that they could get a willing immortal to come after her, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities.
 
They could have offered money, a substantial amount, and put the contract up like the government had.
 
But she had no evidence that it had been a person she’d seen, much less a shifter.

Her thoughts carried her through cooking, and when she set the plate in front of Reaper, she was no closer in finding an answer to what she’d seen.
 
Unable to keep from one last look, she wandered back toward the window and scanned the area one last time.
 
No one was there, and she started to think it had been a figment of her imagination.

“Thanks, sweetheart.”
 
Reaper stood as she approached the table and hugged her, before he planted a kiss on her cheek.

“No problem, big guy.”

With a speed that left her momentarily speechless, Kai lifted her in his arms and rushed upstairs to his bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind them.
 
She landed on her feet and drew a deep breath, taking a quick glance around, relieved to find the blackout shutters already closed.

“Worried about me?” he asked.