Kiss of Heat (11 page)

Sweat ran in slow rivulets down the sides of his face, along the scars of his chest as he suddenly slid into her to the hilt. Sherra bucked against him, strangling for breath as her cunt fought to adjust around the unfamiliar girth.

She stared back at him, whimpering at how deeply he filled her, needing him to take her violently, to slam his flesh as hard and deep inside her as possible.

“Please.” She was almost crying with the need.

He smiled tightly. “I know how you need it, Sherra. I know what you need. Give in to me and you can have it now. Refuse me and you’ll wait until I can’t stand it anymore before you get it.”

Her eyes widened. “What?” she wailed, her hips jerking, fighting for the friction she needed as he worked his hips in tight, hard circles, grinding the head of his cock against her grasping cervix.

“Just a kiss,” he crooned softly as the knot of need tightened in her womb. “Give me your kiss, Sherra, and I’ll fuck you until you’re screaming because you don’t know if it’s pleasure or pain.”

Her kiss. Her destruction. “Kane, don’t do this to me.” She could feel the tears welling in her eyes, her body out of control, her pussy spasming around his cock as he slowly slid it to the entrance again before sliding back slowly, opening her all over again. “Please. It hurts. It hurts so bad.” She was crying and helpless to stop it. The punch strokes into her womb were killing her. The more he teased her, the harder they became.

His eyes fell to her abdomen, watching the hard convulsions of the muscles there each time his cock butted against her cervix.

“I’m sorry,” she cried, emotion and fear overwhelming her. “I’m sorry, Kane. I can’t. I can’t give you what you want. I can’t…”

He cursed. A low, horrible sound of bleak acceptance before he jerked free of her body. Before she could scream out in protest he pulled her forward then flipped her over, braced her against the couch and rammed home.

Her back arched as a scream tore from her throat. His cock was an iron-hard length of ecstasy plunging inside her now. His hands gripped her hips, almost bruising in their strength as he fucked her so hard and fast she swore he would batter his way into her very womb. And she still needed more. She shrieked with need as she lunged back into each stroke, driving him harder, deeper, feeling her orgasm tightening in her womb with each thrust.

“Damn you.” He bent over her, his fingers delving between her thighs. Locating the hard swollen bud of her clit, he began to rub it with firm destructive strokes as he razed the tender channel of her pussy.

She was dying. Sherra felt her body tighten, felt fire erupt in her cunt, her womb, then explode so hard and fast she could do nothing but wail within the storm overtaking her.

“Yes. Fuck, yes. Sherra. Come for me, baby. Yeah. Oh baby…” He was filling her. Spurting inside her as he continued to ride her through her orgasm, each thrust sending him to the very depths of her pussy where he shot a stream of thick, hot seed at the mouth of her womb before shuttling back then surging forward for another.

Her body was soaking it up. Her orgasm ripped through her, shuddering through her bones and leaving her weak, exhausted, as she lay against the cushions of the couch. The muscles of her pussy flexed, milked his flesh as he held himself deep for one last powerful spurt of release and collapsed over her.

“This won’t work for long,” he warned her. “You know it won’t, Sherra. You need more than just the cock and hot seed. Your body and your mind need more. You can’t deny it forever.”

She shook her head, trembling at the ring of truth in his words. She would make it enough. If this were all she ever had, then it would be enough.

He moved away from her slowly, his softening flesh easing from the hold she had on it as he breathed out roughly.

“Are you okay now?” His hand smoothed over the curves of her butt.

She nodded quickly. She had to get away from him. Had to have a minute to figure out exactly what had happened and where she had lost every measure of common sense she possessed.

“Do you need more?” She could feel the hunger throbbing in his voice.

Her pussy screamed yes. Her head pleaded no. She shook her head, her fingers digging into the cushions of the couch.

“Fine.” His voice was hard, bleak. “Be in the doctor’s office first thing in the morning. I’ll meet you there. You can hide from me all you want to, but I’ll be damned if your health will suffer for it.”

He was dressing. She could hear him behind her as she allowed her body to settle against the floor, her head resting on the couch away from him. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t face what she had just allowed to happen.

“Damn you for being so stubborn,” he finally cursed shortly. “If you need me, Sherra, you know where to find me.” The blend of sarcasm and fury had her shivering in dread.

She had purposely never really pushed Kane in the past six months. Had let him make his smart-assed comments, let him torment her with his presence and his often-angry asides. But she hadn’t pushed back. She hadn’t pushed because she knew when she did she would trigger the dominance he kept such a tight leash on. The dominance she had just triggered with her refusal to share the heat with him. With her refusal to give in to the needs rioting through her body.

The bedroom door closed behind him as he left, leaving her naked, the tatters of her gown hanging from one shoulder, his seed weeping from her aching pussy. But the pain was gone. At least, for now.

Chapter Eleven

Sherra stomped from the basement labs late the next morning after the intense examination and ritual bloodletting Martin was into. The man had to be part vampire to need all that blood.

Forgoing the elevator, she moved quickly up the short flight of stairs, coming out just beyond the wide front entryway and directly across from the kitchen.

“You promised.” She heard Cassie’s low forlorn voice.

“I know I promised, pup,” Kane said softly, his voice drifting into the hallway. “But Dash and Momma had to move again. They’ll call us as soon as they settle in. I promise, everything’s okay, but we need to make sure they stay safe, too.”

“But I need my momma,” Cassie told him with irrefutable logic. “The fairy misses her.”

Sherra sighed softly. Cassie blamed everything on the fairy, even her harebrained rush into the danger the day before.

“And the fairy has every good reason to miss her,” Kane said gently, his normally rough voice velvet-soft. “They’ll be heading home in a day or so anyway. I sent Merc and Tanner just to help Dash watch over your momma. I told them, no matter what, you stand in front of Cassie’s momma, and they said they would. Do you think they’ll let anything happen to her?”

Sherra tilted her head, her eyes closing as his voice soothed even her frayed nerves.

“No,” Cassie said hesitantly. “Merc and Tanner and Dash will keep her safe. But I’m her little girl, Kane. She’s supposed to tuck me in. And tell me when it’s okay to eat my chocolate so I don’t get a tummy ache…” Sherra’s eyes flew open, her heart clenching at the sound of coming tears.

“Excuse me?” Kane adopted a tone of false offense. “Have you got a tummy ache yet?”

Sherra shook her head. They had kept chocolate strictly out of reach.

“Well, no…”

“And don’t you get plenty of chocolate?” he asked her then, causing Sherra’s eyes to narrow warningly.

“Yeah. Those Oreos are the best, Kane. Double chocolate.” The sigh of bliss had Sherra staring into the doorway in surprise.

Surely, Kane was not slipping that child chocolate. He wouldn’t.

“Good girl. So, what’s your poison? Milk?”

“Yes, please. And four cookies this time,” the little girl answered.

“Four?” Laughter filled his voice. “Double chocolate? I don’t think so, my girl. Two double, or four normal. Your choice. And don’t remind me that you aren’t supposed to have more than one today. I might feel like I need to keep practicing how to say no to wily little girls.”

“I might cry.” Silence met the little girl’s threat.

“You might cry harder when there’s no cookies,” he grunted. “Don’t you attempt to blackmail me, you little swindler.” Cassie giggled at his gruff tone. “I helped raise Merinus. You can’t come up with a threat she didn’t invent first. That woman was a terror on two legs. You can only hope to match her wiliness.”

“I can do better, but I like you. Even if you did spank me. That’s not daddy training, Kane.” The little girl laughed. “Okay, four regular now. Two double later.”

“Who said anything about later? Six a day limit, pup. You already had two. And if you sneak away from Dawn when she comes to collect you, I’ll cut you off for sure. Spanking might not be daddy training, but discipline comes in somewhere, hotshot.”

“Shew, you’re tough as Momma. You sure you’re not a daddy already, Kane?” The little girl’s words splintered Sherra’s heart.

“No, baby, I’m not a daddy.” His soft, regretful tone destroyed her soul. “Come on, cookie time before Merrie comes in. She’ll tan both our hides if we’re not careful.”

“I love you, Kane.” The little girl sighed. “But if I don’t talk to my momma soon, you’re not going to have enough chocolate to bribe me with. Little girls need their mommas.”

“Yes, baby, they do,” he agreed softly. “More than anything, little girls need their mommas.”

Sherra lowered her head, her hand clamping over her mouth as she turned and hurried quickly to the back of the house and into the late morning air. Tears tightened her chest, clogged her throat. A knife stroke of agony ripped through her soul as her womb pulsed in grief.

If you can’t protect someone else’s child how can you hope to protect your own?
His furious words after Cassie’s near-death still had the power to slice through her soul. He was right. She should have been ready for whatever Cassie would pull. They all knew how adept her hearing was; she should have thought, should have caught the little girl before she rushed through the door.

He had been furious, as terrified as she was when Cassie slipped away from her. Sherra knew he hadn’t meant the words to be as hurtful as they had been, or the memories to rise inside her as bleak and black and they had.

Their child. She stopped in the shadow of one of the old oaks, her hands pressing her flat abdomen as her womb convulsed in need. The heat was building again. She couldn’t conceive, would never conceive because of her own foolishness. Was it fate’s sneering payment for having not protected the child she had carried the first time? She believed heavily in fate, in payment earned for any and all crimes against nature. Just as the world was now paying, as nature demanded the survival of the species science created, was fate exacting its own payment because she hadn’t protected the life she had been given?

“Sherra, are you okay?” Callan’s voice came through the communications unit she had attached to her head before leaving her bedroom.

She drew in a deep breath. If he was watching the pinpoints on the monitors in the communications shed, he would know where she was and worry that she wasn’t heading for the meeting he had arranged.

“I’m fine.” She fought to keep her voice even, to keep her breathing calm. “I’m on my way in.”

“We’ll be waiting on you then,” he responded quietly, though she knew she hadn’t fooled him.

Damn, Doc probably told him about the test results, which would only make things worse. The increase in the hormone in her system was dramatic. Pretty soon, she would no longer to be able to fight; she’d be on her knees begging Kane to fuck her again.

The hormones in Kane’s system, though increased, didn’t seem to be affecting him as drastically as they were her. Even more worrisome was the strange tenderness around her womb, a slight swelling in the area of the fallopian tubes that had become more sensitive.

The heat was changing as well. The need was so much fiercer than it had ever been at this phase. She should have had two more weeks before entering the full phase of it, and even then, it hadn’t been like this. This went beyond pain. Beyond hunger. It was a fire inside her that only Kane’s release had quenched, and then, only for a while.

She drew in a hard breath and continued to the communications shed and the meeting Callan had called. The missile attack, followed so closely by Seth Lawrence’s arrival, was worrying him as well as Kane. The information gained from the missile-wielding attacker had been anything but comforting. Learning that some unknown person or group was hiring assassins to get into the compound and kill Merinus, Roni and the child was frankly terrifying. It upped the stakes in an already dangerous game.

* * * * *

Kane flipped the lights back on and watched the expressions of the four people gathered in the makeshift office after the briefing on both the assassin who had struck days before and Aaron and Seth Lawrence.

The assassin was an irritation. An inept nobody who had found the caves that opened from the other side of the mountain and led into Breed territory. That would have to be taken care of. Aaron and Seth were a larger issue. The son, Kane was inclined to trust. The father was another matter entirely. His public stand on the Breeds was well-known, his opinion that they should be penned back up and kept closely guarded had been vocalized publicly several times.

“Double the guards in the forests,” Callan said, his voice vibrating with an angry growl. “Have a unit start scouring the property for other caves, other entrances we’re unaware of. Whoever strikes, they have to get past our perimeter security before they can strike the house. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again. Put extra guards on the guesthouse too. Make sure the Lawrence party stays put.”

“Seth wouldn’t hurt his sister.” Dawn surprised them all when she spoke up then.

Her voice was firm, carrying an edge of steel that had slowly developed after Dayan’s death. Her amber eyes regarded them all, the shadows of the past still swirling in the depths, though she no longer avoided their eyes.

“What makes you say that?” Kane asked her; his voice, though questioning, didn’t outright reject her opinion either.

She pushed back the fringe of soft, light brown hair that fell over her forehead.