Page 49 of Kane's Bounty
She nodded and he sat down with his back against the wall and his feet straight out in front of him. His long legs left his feet dangling over the edge of the small bed.
She moved to sit next to him and his arm came around her shoulders. “Why didn’t you just have Wade take us in today?”
In the city, there was never total darkness. The room was light enough so she could see his face in the streetlights. His jaw ticked. She’d noticed every time he was angry or uncomfortable, his jaw tightened and the muscle clenched and unclenched.
“I didn’t want you to spend a night alone in a cell after what happened.”
The idea of a cold gray jail cell caused a shiver to run up her spine. “Thank you.”
“What did you see in his mind?”
“I don’t want to talk about this.” She tried to pull away from him, but his arm tightened around her shoulder.
“Don’t run from me, Lena. Please. You can’t sleep. I assume because you’re afraid to close your eyes. I know you’re not ready to let me take some of your burden away, but talking about what you saw will help.”
He seemed so sure of it. Her chest tightened painfully. “I saw a girl, younger than me and blonde. He was in her mind, tearing it apart piece by piece. She was naked under him and raping her body was not enough for him. He had to take her mind too. His smile was the most hideous thing I have ever seen. When he was finished with the girl, there was nothing left of who she had been. She was just an empty shell with nothing inside. She would have been better off dead.” Tears rolled freely down Lena’s face. “I feel the same way about myself.” Shame suffocated her as if it were a pillow held over her face.
Kane’s voice was tight. “You are not better off dead. We can get through this.”
“Why did you go to sleep in the other room?” She was afraid of the answer, but she had to know.
“Because I want to make love to you and I didn’t think I could resist if I was in the same bed with you.”
Her eyes closed as she allowed the truth of his words to flow over her. He still wanted her. What happened to her didn’t disgust him. His feelings hadn’t changed.
She turned and straddled his lap with her palms pressed against his broad chest.
He wiped tears from her face with his thumbs. “You don’t need to do this, Lena. I was acting like a schoolboy. I can hold you and take care of you without having to have sex with you. I want to be here for you.”
“Why?”
“I told you. I love you.”
He could kill with his bare hands. She knew that about him. Those same hands were capable of incredible tenderness. He loved her. Her entire body hummed with those words. “I thought I only imagined that.”
He shook his head. His fingers combed through her hair and rubbed the tension from her head and neck. “I said it and I meant it. I love you. I have no idea how it happened. I didn’t even know I was capable of loving another person. From the moment I saw you, things have been different.”
“Then let’s just run, Kane. We can go somewhere Oscar Thorn will never find us.”
One side of his mouth turned up. “What place is that? He doesn’t follow the rules, Lena. You know it. He’ll never stop looking for you and we would always be on the run. Those people in your vision, they didn’t look as if they were running. They looked happy and comfortable. Unafraid that at any moment Troth Banta would rush in and take it all away. I want that life.”
“You don’t even know if that world exists.”
His eyes narrowed on her. “I know the alternative is burying you and that is not acceptable.”
His hands dropped to his side and he looked away from her face. “I keep telling you what I want, but you haven’t said what it is you want.” He looked up at her again. “Do you want me, Lena?”
Her heart pounded and her chest ached. “More than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything in my life. I love you, but—”
“No buts.” He cut her off, rolling them so that she was lying on her back and his body pressed hers into the soft mattress. His lips covered hers. Because of the urgency she felt from him, she’d expected him to plunder her mouth, but his kisses were light and gentle. He nipped at the fullness of her bottom lip. His tongue traced a line along the crease between her lips. Her body brimmed with want in spite of the trauma of the day. Banta slipped from her mind leaving only Kane’s lips and tongue and the way he used them to coax her.
He pushed up onto his elbows and looked down at her. “You say no and I stop. Do you understand, Lena? No matter what and no matter when. If you feel the slightest bit scared or uncomfortable, you have to tell me.”
She reached up and wrapped her hand around his neck. He was the sweetest, kindest man she’d ever met. Maybe it shouldn’t be the thing that turned her on. Maybe his hard body or sparkling eyes would be a more appropriate erotic trigger. But at that moment, it was his sweet regard for her that had her pussy pulsing for attention. “I will, but right now. I just want you inside me, Kane. I want to feel your cock deep inside me and I don’t want to think about anything else.”
He groaned and she felt his cock go rigid against her thigh. He’d been holding back, waiting to see if she would reject him or freak out at the notion of sex. Since closing herself off that morning, she had only let her protective wall down for short periods of time. She couldn’t stand the idea of anyone else in her head but her for the moment. She secured her hold on the wall and pulled his head down to her waiting lips.
He resisted for half a second and then devoured her lips. His tongue dove into her mouth.
