Kiss of Heat (15 page)

She had been in trouble from the first day he showed up in her life at those damned labs.

Taber shook his head as he approached her, his green eyes darker than her own and much too perceptive. He drew in a deep breath, a frown crossing his brow.

“Have you been in to see Doc yet?” he asked her.

Sherra shook her head. “Not yet. I called this morning and told him I would be in later, why?”

Taber shook his head, his brow creasing into a frown. “I’m not sure, but make certain you don’t miss that appointment. Your scent has altered in some way; I just can’t put my finger on how.”

Sherra shrugged. She had done that before and it had always been nothing, though normally it was Dawn who noticed the minute differences rather than one of her brothers.

“I’ll make it in this afternoon. You better catch up with Roni and see if she’s going to keep allowing you to live. I’ll tell Tanner and Dawn to expect the two of you at the Lawrence’s cabin later. You won’t be able to keep her away any longer.”

“Yeah, I figured that one out already,” he growled in irritation. “I’m going to snap someone’s neck in two for allowing the information out, too. As soon as she lets me know just how the hell she found out.”

Sherra grinned back at him in amusement. It was funny. Taber had always been one of the calmest of the Breeds until the past year. Just as with Callan, the responsibility of protecting the women they had claimed, and the unborn children resulting from it, was stretching all their nerves to a breaking point.

“Good luck then.” She paused long enough to pat his shoulder before pulling the front door open and heading into the bright, crisp, clean air of the early fall day. The leaves were a hundred shades of brown, red and green as they prepared for the dormancy to come. The colors were dazzling to the eye and, not for the first time, filled Sherra with a sense of amazement.

It was more vivid today than it ever had been, though. She could feel a new sense of energy filling her, whipping through her body, and though she had just spent the night and early morning hours screaming beneath the fierce thrusts of Kane’s body, she realized she still desired him. Still needed him.

It wasn’t the burning, painful ache that it had been; rather it was a reminder, a pulsing echo that vibrated through her body and made her remember the night past with a small shiver of longing.

A small beep at her ear warned her that access to her personal channel was being requested. She reached up, flipping the switch that would block everyone but the person requesting a private conversation.

“Hey, gorgeous.” Kane’s voice filled her head, soft, amused, his voice heavy with the memories of the night they had shared.

Sherra smiled, shaking her head at that tone of voice.

“You’re supposed to be working, stud,” she reminded him, almost laughing at the memory of how that one little word could set his libido on fire.

“Oh, you’re bad,” he chuckled. “I might have to spank you.”

“Mmm.” She smiled as she moved across the compound, her steps light, filled with an energy she hadn’t known she could feel. “Sounds interesting. Maybe I could spank you next, though. I think you’d like that, Kane.”

“Probably too much.” She could hear the rueful resignation in his voice. “Baby, if your hand is delivering it, I’m sure I couldn’t help but enjoy it. What’s your schedule today?”

“Patrol,” she told him as she reached the small parking lot and the off-road Jeeps parked there. “I’ll be on the west sector providing support as we search some of the caves there for tunnels leading through the mountains. We don’t need anymore missile-toting assassins to come calling anytime soon.”

Kane snorted at that. “I’ll meet you in a few hours and we’ll sneak off somewhere for lunch,” he suggested. “I’ll provide the main course, you can provide the dessert.” His voice dropped, grew husky and filled with sexual promise.

Sherra paused beside the Jeep, staring into the clear morning sky, a smile on her lips as Kane filled a part of her she didn’t know existed. She could feel warmth blooming in her heart, heat in her pussy. She wanted him now, not later.

She shook her head at that thought and stepped into the Jeep.

“Get hold of me first,” she told him as she started the engine and reversed the vehicle from its parking slot. “We might have to forgo food for dessert if things are too busy.”

“Will do.” She could hear the anticipation, the smile that filled his voice. “Be careful kitty-mine. See you soon.”

“Soon,” she whispered in reply as the connection broke and the receiver automatically switched back to the primary channel.

She headed the Jeep to the back of the property and the high gate that guarded the back entrance. The day was looking brighter than ever.

Chapter Seventeen

“Dammit, Sherra, I told you to keep your people out of these damned caves.” Kane was furious as he confronted her in the main cavern of the cave system they had found that morning. As with the cave the assassin had used to slip onto the mountain, this one, too, had an extensive, maze-like tunnel system that burrowed beneath the mountain.

“And I told you to chill out,” she grunted as he rounded the curve behind her, the scent of his arousal and his anger nearly causing her to stagger as it wrapped around her, reminding her of the craving that tormented her as well.

“Wrong answer,” he barked furiously as he drew beside her and gripped her hip to stop her advance into one of the narrow tunnels. “Are you insane? Do you have any idea just how well these caves could be booby-trapped?”

She frowned, staring up into his furious face through the glow of the flashlight that was directed at the floor.

“Oh, I don’t know, Kane,” she responded with false sweetness. “Do you think the two explosives we dismantled an hour ago might have let me in on that little problem?”

So far, the two main tunnels they had found had been wired with enough explosives to bring the mountain itself down. They were expertly hidden and almost undetectable. Thankfully, Sherra, as well as several of the other Breeds, had been trained to detect explosives that some Breeds might miss. It wasn’t so much as detecting the scent of the explosive itself as it was detecting the variance of the scents in the area of it.

When anything new was introduced into an area, even if its scent wasn’t detectable to sensitive noses, the differences in the smells around them changed. This was how the two explosives had been found so far. Attempts had been made to camouflage the smell of the high-tech ingredients of the compound itself, which proved they had been set as a strike against the Breeds. Whether they were set before the Council evacuated or after, was anyone’s guess at this point.

“Sherra, get the hell out of here.” He stopped her again as she started to continue down the dirt path that led through the stone. “We’ll get an explosives team out here…”

“What the hell do you think I am?” she asked him incredulously. “You’ve read my file, you know my training. I’m more than qualified to be here.”

“You’re more than stubborn and intractable, is what the hell you are.”

He restrained her again, pushing her against the stone wall as he loomed over her. “I gave you a direct order, Sherra. Clear the fuck out.”

She looked up at him slowly. “You must have me confused with someone who actually cares if they follow your orders, Kane,” she said softly. “I don’t.”

“Don’t care? Hell, I already know you don’t follow my damned orders.” He was literally baring his teeth now as he moved faster than she could defend against, shackling her hands to the wall as the flashlight fell to the floor, its dim glow enough to see the lust and fury raging in his gaze.

“Don’t push me, Kane.” She stared back at him relentlessly. “I won’t be intimidated by you. Not now, not ever. I’m not some helpless little normal woman to bow and scrape at your feet for whatever order you would give.”

“Who is head of security here, sweet thing?” He gave her a tight, hard grin. “Last I heard it wasn’t you.”

She sniffed at that. “Only because you have balls and I don’t,” she growled. “For some reason, Callan must think the size of your dick indicates your brain capacity. Perhaps I should warn him otherwise.”

The truth was, Kane was better at the job and she knew it. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have her own strengths. Strengths she wouldn’t allow him to take from her. She stared back at him mutinously, daring him to go any further in his male superior demands.

“Perhaps you should,” he drawled. “But let’s first see if the size of my dick can pound any sense into your stubborn ass first.”

She had time to open her mouth with every intention of blasting him to hell and back with any and every insult she could pull out of her overheated brain, when his lips covered hers. There was a second of stunned surprise, that moment when she wondered why the hell she fought him, because the feel of his lips on hers was paradise.

This was the answer to every aching, hungry cell in her body. Her arms crossed over his shoulders, her fingers digging into the smooth muscle beneath his shirt as she slipped her tongue over his, following it as it retreated back into his mouth until his lips could close on her, suckling her tongue, drawing the sweet essence of the arousing hormone from the glands there and consuming it himself.

They both moaned, the sound trapped by the other’s mouth as they ate at each other; lips and tongues meshed, pressing together as the carnality of the act became overwhelming.

Sherra could feel her pussy weeping, dampening her panties, making her move against the hard thigh that had slipped between hers, pressing against her cunt and setting it on fire.

“Dessert first,” Kane growled as he tore his lips from hers, his hands moving to his jeans, releasing the material quickly. “Get out of those pants, Sherra, I can’t wait much longer.”

Feverish, enflamed, the sexuality spiraling between them was too hot, too intense to deny now. Her hands moved to the clasp of her own pants when she saw his cock revealed. His hand gripped it, fingers moving over it as he watched her from narrowed eyes.

Her fingers were trembling, her breath rasping in her throat as she pushed the waistband over her hips, the curve of her rear.

“I can’t wait, Sherra,” he whispered brokenly as he turned her. “Bend over. Put your hands against the wall.”

He positioned her as he wanted her, bent, braced against the stone, as he spread her thighs as far as her pants allowed.

“Kane,” she whimpered hungrily as she felt him bend, the blunt head of his erection sliding against the slick flesh of her over-sensitized pussy.

“Damn, baby, you’re so hot,” he whispered, one hand gripping her hip as he pulled at her, forcing her to rise to her tiptoes, to create the height needed to lodge the flared head at the entrance to her vagina. “There, Sherra,” he groaned. “Hell yes, baby. Just like this.”

She had to bite her lip to keep from screaming as he began to bore inside her. Slow rotations of his hips worked the hard flesh inside the gripping tissue of her pussy as she fought to breathe through the pleasure streaking through her.

“Trying not to scream, baby?” he asked her tightly, both hands at her hips now as he screwed inside her.

Sherra couldn’t believe the eroticism of the act. Bent over, her pants at her ankles as Kane fucked her from behind, his cock worked inside her with rhythmic, powerful strokes that had her praying she wouldn’t scream from need of him.

“You’re cruel,” she groaned, resting her head on her arm as she thrust her pussy on the smooth impalement. “Don’t tease me like this, Kane.”

“Oh, baby, that’s not teasing,” he assured her gently. “Now this, darlin’, this is teasing.”

She moaned helplessly as the strokes slowed but were no less devastating. Sweat began to dampen her body as electricity sizzled along her nerve endings. She panted, whimpered pleadingly, all in vain as Kane whispered his joy of her. How hot. How sweet. How tight…

She tasted blood as she bit her lip, fighting against his hold as she began to crave the deep, driving thrusts she knew he could give her. She wanted him slamming inside her, throwing her into the near violent orgasms that overtook her when he did so.

Instead, it was slow, measured thrusts. Deep, gentle penetrations that stretched the snug muscles and had her gripping him with a cry of longing, pulsing around his cock as he came over her, his lips settling on her neck.

“Kane, I can’t stand it,” she groaned as he retreated, returned, paused and retreated again only to renew the cycle.

“You have to stand it,” he panted. “It’s killing me, Sherra. You’re killing me with pleasure and I can’t stand the thought of letting you go.”

He was pumping inside her, smooth, strong thrusts that were too slow, too damned teasing and only built her need higher. She was gasping for breath, her hips writhing as he restrained her, her pussy clenching convulsively around the steel-hard shaft driving her insane.

“If you don’t fuck me, I swear I’ll castrate you later,” she groaned as his hips twisted, his hand lifting her as he sank deeper inside the burning depths of her vagina. “I mean it, Kane,” she cried out. “I can’t stand it. I need it harder.”

“Ahh, baby, all you had to do was ask,” he groaned, his own voice strained now as the pace increased.

Sherra felt her breath catch in her chest as her eyes closed helplessly. All her senses were centered between her thighs. The feel of his cock shafting her with hard, digging strokes, raking over sensitive tissue, stretching it, setting her on fire as he began, finally, to fuck her in earnest.

Their moans mingled in the dark confines of the tunnel, whispered gasps, female Feline growls of hunger merging in a symphony of hunger.

Sherra moved back to him, driving him inside her, deeper, harder, feeling the smooth expanse of his cock head butting against her cervix as the knot of tension began to build within her womb. She was shaking, her legs trembling, her muscles tightening as Kane’s pace increased further.

The sound of damp flesh smacking together, the sucking of her pussy around his cock all combined with the moans and filled her head with a screaming demand she knew she could no longer deny.