Page 9 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

“How was snooping through my things?” He held his hand out, palm upward.

Gulping, she handed his things over and watched as he put them back into his pocket.

“You’re not going to make sure everything is as it should be?”

“Isn’t it?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Then I’m not gonna check. But….”

Her eyes dropped to his bare chest. He was incredibly muscular and strong, things she wasn’t. The incongruities shouted at her brain with how wrong they were for each other in every way. They were too different. And yet, her pulse pounded being near him. Her knees weakened as he looked at her.

Kane pushed off the wall and came closer to her. Tabitha sucked in a strangled breath.

He came closer. And closer.

The oxygen had vanished from planet earth. Or maybe the overly large Were simply required more to fill his big lungs than she did, thus leaving little for her to breathe.

“I don’t know what it is,” he said, heated, curious eyes roaming over her face and hair.

“Pardon me?”

“I don’t understand it. I’ve thought about it endlessly, and it still doesn’t make sense to me.”

“What doesn’t?”

He shook his head slowly. “Why I care about you.”

He didn’t understand why he… cared about her?

“I’m confused.”

Was she having a panic attack? She was pretty sure she was having a panic attack.

“Me too.” With careful movements, he reached up and tugged the eyeglasses from her face. Folding them up, he set them on the bathroom counter behind her. “There you are.”

I’ve been here the whole time, she wanted to say.

Somehow she managed to respond. “What do you mean?”

A calloused hand enclosed around her wrist and tugged her into his brawny chest. She didn’t even reach one of his pectoral muscles. He craned his neck to look down at her. He appeared to be thinking about something amusing.

“What is it?” Her tone was defensive. Was he laughing at her?

“Nothing.” He shook his head, laughing softly. “Just thinking about a gift to buy you.”

She blushed. “A gift? What on earth for?”

“Who cares what it’s for? You never need a reason to buy someone a gift. You know you might be short, but you’ve got great legs. I’ve told you that before, yeah?”

A lump formed in her throat. She nodded. Yes, she remembered that. He’d told her right before he kissed her for the first time. Her stomach squeezed with forbidden desires she had no business considering. He was a dangerous Were, and a killer for hire. There was blood on his hands, literally, at this very moment, from people who wanted him dead. And perhaps for good reason.

“Those sleek, curvy legs would look spectacular in a tall, black high heel. Plus, it’d make this a little easier.” He stepped into her body. “May I?” He firmly grabbed her hips and pulled her up to meet his body.

Her hands floundered but found their way around his shoulders to hang on for dear life—not that she needed to; he’d caught her easily enough.

“What are you doing, Kane?”

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