Page 29 of Bought to Break
She looked up at him. ‘Are you really not making me do this? Making me dream these things? Every night you’rethereand …’
‘And what?’ he asked, eager to hear more.
‘I like it,’ she said so quietly he almost didn’t hear her.
He breathed out slowly, his cock throbbing, painfully unsated. ‘What do you like?’ he couldn’t stop himself from asking.
‘The things you do to me and the things I do. I don’t want to, but I do.’
He leaned over her, taking in her swollen lips and bare breasts. He looked at his fingers, wet with her arousal, and grinned. Her eyes widened.
‘Seems silly to stop now,’ he murmured.
He moved over her, positioning himself at her entrance once more. She didn’t stop him; instead a hand fluttered up to stroke the stubble at his jaw.
Kane forgot to breathe as he felt her caress. He’d never been touched in such a way. His lungs began to burn and he took a deep gulp of air.
Then he heard the baying of dogs in the distance and cursed loudly.
‘What is it?’
‘Hounds.’
He put his very unsatisfied organ back in his breeches quickly, promising himself they’d continue this later, and deftly unlocked the manacle holding them together.
‘Put yourself to rights. They aren’t looking for us, but it won’t be long before they’re upon our camp, so unless you want them to get an eyeful, cover yourself.’
She did as he told her and got to her feet. ‘Actually,’ she said, touching his arm, ‘I think they might be looking for us.’ She avoided his gaze. ‘Well, for me, anyway.’
Chapter 15
Sorin
Sorin stood at attention next to Viktor. Both had their eyes forward and were motionless except for the slow rise and fall of their leather armour as they breathed. They’d arrived at the main camp of the Dark Army that morning, a week earlier than the Commander’s missive had ordered, as they’d found out when they got there.
Sorin wished Viktor and he had just gone after Lana the night she’d escaped. Instead they’d taken Kane at his word and he had lied to them. They’d left that very night to travel south instead of going after their captive because he had told them they had to be with the Commander in a few days when really they’d had a full sennight.
Kane had a penchant for making his quarry run before he closed in for the kill, so to speak. Sorin hoped Lana got under Kane’s skin and made him regret his little chase as soon as he found her. His Brother was vengeful and dangerous and the bad in him far outweighed the good, but there had been times, rare though they were, that Sorin had seen quite another man lurking behind Kane’s dark eyes.
Sorin had seen him save a small child from the river once and another time spare a quivering farmer and his family as their town was ransacked and their neighbours murdered. Kane didn’t know he had seen, but when Lana was caught, he hoped it would be that Kane and not by the man who was known as one of the cruellest of the Dark Brothers.
Sorin couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt something like peace within himself, but he was terribly close since Lana. He hoped being around her would do the same for Kane.
After having time to reflect, Sorin believed he knew why they were drawn to Lana. It was a rare thing these days, but a unit of Brothers sometimes found another they were pulled towards. There were at least two he’d heard of recently; one in this very camp so perhaps it wasn’t so unusual anymore. If Lana was their Fourth, that would explain why they’d been compelled to take her with them, why they couldn’t let her go.
But it didn’t explain the peace they felt around her. That wasn’t because he was drawn to her as a Fourth. That was something else and he was afraid he knew why that was as well.
There were stories as old as the Army itself, muttered by Dark Brothers in the dead of night. Tales of witches that had almost brought about the fall of the Army. The legends said that their numbers had been many at the beginning, when the Dark Brothers were the sentinels who protected the realms instead of mercenaries who now only served for the clink of gold. He would have to search through the texts in the archives for more though. Facts were hard to come by from that time. They were rare, but what if Lana was one? It would explain how she was able to get past their defences so easily.
‘You’re early. Good.’
Ousted from his reverie, Sorin simply nodded to their Commander respectfully and saw Viktor do the same from the corner of his eye. The General’s hair was greying, and any skin not covered was crisscrossed with scars of battle, but although he was advancing in years, the size and strength that marked them all as Dark Brothers was very much still with him. The Commander appeared as robust and virile as he always had been, which was lucky for him because as soon as his ageing body showed any sign of weakness, he’d be challenged for the leadership of the Brothers and gutted.
‘You summoned us, Greygor.’
‘Aye. So I did.’ Greygor walked behind his desk and regarded them thoughtfully. ‘I received a bird from a Brother two nights ago.’ He sat. ‘About you two.’ A look of annoyance marred his features as he watched them. ‘Can you not imagine what it was about?’
Sorin turned his head toward Viktor slightly, a horrible idea dawning. Greygor had the eyes and ears of many, but surely he couldn’t already know about Lana, could he? Viktor just stared straight ahead.
