Kiss of Heat (2 page)

“My favorite one…” he ignored her denial as his hand moved, his knuckles running lightly up her arm, “is the one where I have you stretched over my lap, turning your ass a bright pretty red for teasing me for so long. You squirming and begging for my cock each time I spank one of those rounded little cheeks. I would be more than happy to reenact it for you,” he offered with all appearances of polite consideration.

She should be outraged. Instead, Sherra stared back at him with shock and fought the clench of her buttocks at the thought of his hands descending on them in such a manner. Oh yeah, she could envision that one as well. Too well.

“That’s quite alright, Kane,” she sniffed with as much dignity as she could muster amid the overwhelming hunger rippling inside her. “You can just enjoy your little perversions alone. God gave men a hand and five fingers for a reason, you know.”

“Hmm. I know. And I know for a fact just how well I can make those fingers fit my favorite little kitty, too. Come here purr-baby, let me show you.” Dangerous. Warning. His voice was like an addictive narcotic flooding her system despite the edge of fury she could see lingering in his gaze.

Cream flooded her cunt. She could feel it seeping from her vagina and slickening her labial folds with its thick essence. Keeping control wasn’t easy to accomplish. Not when her tongue literally throbbed to share her pain with him and her vagina clenched in agreement. Damn him. She didn’t need this right now.

It would serve him right if she gave him what he kept tempting her to. The rich potency of the hormone would be a fitting punishment for the months of arousal he had put her through.

“Kane. Sherra. No fighting today.” Callan saved her from having to drag a scathing retort from her suddenly vacant mind when he walked into the kitchen, followed by his wife and the rest of the main Pride. “Let’s get down to business and see if we can get anything accomplished this time.”

The last several meetings had been so unproductive as to make a mockery of his determination to ensure the Breeds a place in society. Not as a separate species, but as human beings deserving of life. That seemed to be the current debate waging among the inner circles of more than one government body.

“Okay, what do we have?” Callan asked as they all sat down. “Sherra, did you get those estimates?”

“Everything.” She pushed one of the files to her Pride brother. “Farside does excellent construction work, Callan. I’ve researched every angle and they look like our best bet.”

“I disagree.” Kane did no more than she expected as he took his seat as well. He disagreed with everything she said anymore. “It would require too many unknowns on the property at once and create a risk we don’t need. That makes them more than untrustworthy; it makes them a hazard.”

Sherra gritted her teeth for long seconds before she turned to him with a snarl.

“Farside Construction is one of the most respected construction firms in the nation. Their buildings have very high ratings for workmanship, they don’t hire subcontractors and they make certain the work is of excellent quality from start to finish. Saying they are untrustworthy could be considered libelous, Kane,” Sherra snapped furiously.

He was once again being difficult. For some reason he thought it his job in life to make living an even greater hell for her than it already was. At this rate, she was going to lose all semblance of control and end up scratching his eyes out minutes before trying to fuck him silly.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins, making her insides tremble, her womb flex in need. Anger always made it worse. Made the heat spread through her body like a conflagration she had no hope of controlling.

“Settle down, Sherra. He said he didn’t trust them,” Callan reminded her as her gaze locked with Kane’s. “We have to be certain who we’re dealing with before we let them in on the property. Especially with Cassie here.”

As though she didn’t know that. She felt like hissing in sheer frustration.

“It’s a meeting,” she argued, turning to Callan. “I’ve busted my ass to get these files together and come up with the best choices for the work that needs to be completed. If he keeps shooting them down, we’ll be building the damned houses ourselves.”

“Which makes more sense, purr-baby,” Kane sniped, his ever-present knowing smirk tilting his lips. “We have enough hands here and it’s not like they weren’t trained at damned near everything. What’s the point in wasting money as well as manpower when we would be out no more than materials to do it ourselves?”

Irritation was beginning to thicken Kane’s voice, as though he was growing tired of the ever-present battle between them. Which was too bad. He started it, his sniping and mocking comments continually battered away at her and she was growing sick of it.

“Because it takes away from the defense of the compound itself,” she snapped back.

“Bullshit.” He was frowning now, his dark blue eyes blazing. “You forget who head of security is here, kitten. Me. I know exactly what it takes to defend this compound and it doesn’t nearly take two hundred Breeds at any given time to do so. Let your people do the work. It will build a sense of responsibility as well as pride in the home they’ve taken.”

“You seem to forget the fact that most of those men and women you’re talking about need a chance to rest and recuperate, not work their asses off all day.” She planted her hands on the table, snarling back at him as she thought of the dull-eyed men and women that had been rescued from various labs over the past months.

“You can’t coddle them like this, Sherra.” He was nearly in her face now as the others watched in interest. “You’re not going to help them by babying them as though everything was going to be just hunky-dory from now on. It’s not. What they face isn’t going to be a hell of a lot safer than those damned labs they were in if they’re not careful. You can’t let them think it will be.”

Sherra could feel the blood suddenly pumping through her veins, her loins heating, her breasts tingling in response to the confrontation between them now. A sharp kick of arousal tightened her womb, nearly taking her breath as adrenaline surged through her bloodstream.

There was nothing so arousing as a fight with this man. She normally avoided it at all costs, but today… Frustration was like a rabid animal eating at her self-control. She was sick of his sniping. Sick of biting her tongue and keeping her mouth shut rather than pushing them both into something she feared she would regret.

“I’ll be damned if I’ll use them like slave labor, as you suggest,” Sherra sneered back at him. “This isn’t the Middle Ages and you aren’t some petty dictator being allowed to take over.”

Kane sat back in his chair, his eyes narrowing in anger as he watched her. She could feel his intent gaze, almost like a caress over her face, assessing her response. Seeing too much. He did that a lot lately, watching her like a damned bug under a microscope whenever they were in the same room together.

“So pay them a wage,” he finally drawled mockingly. “No one suggested they do it for free. You’re still going to come out ahead without the added danger that allowing others into the compound will bring.”

“Enough, Sherra.” Callan overrode the furious words getting ready to spew from her lips. She wanted to tear into Kane with a desperation that had her fingers curling into claws against the table. “You both have a good argument, but we have to come to a decision tonight.”

“Good luck,” Kane grunted sarcastically as he watched her. “Kitten here seems more determined to see us all dead at the moment then to have houses built.”

Sherra felt a bead of sweat forming on her brow as he smirked at her. His eyes were dark, intent, watching her closely. She could feel him pushing her, knew he was and was helpless against the urge to fight back. She had to fight back. Had to show him she wasn’t weak, she wasn’t timid.

On the heels of that thought came the knowledge that her heat was what was actually pushing her. Instinct. To prove to him she was strong enough to take him, strong enough to fight by his side and challenge his strength, and the need to do so was becoming stronger. Daily, she could feel her own aggression surging in her body and it terrified her.

“He’s irrational, Callan.” She fought to sit back and relax as she glanced at the head of the table where Callan watched them both with a frown. “The man is so damned paranoid you’ll be out there pounding nails instead of making decisions for the Pride soon.”

“Give it a break, Sherra.” Kane’s voice was filled with impatience. “I need Callan to look after Merinus. You can’t seem to keep her out of trouble.”

Sherra turned back to him, incredulous at the accusation. Suddenly she had gone from coddling the exhausted Breeds to being unable to protect Merinus?

“Me?” she snarled, gripping the table in fury. “I wasn’t the one that took her out on the motorcycle the other day. That was you. All I did was help her clean the stupid closet out.”

“She almost fell on her head, dammit. I told you to keep that woman out of closed spaces. She’s a hazard in them, didn’t you pay attention?”

“I am not your sister’s keeper!” she yelled. “How am I supposed to make sense of the crazy things she wants to do? She’s your damned sister.”

She was on her feet now, her finger pointing across the table in accusation as she faced him. She was sick of playing babysitter to an eight-year-old that knew more than she should, as well as a woman who didn’t seem to know how to move her feet in a closet.

“Well hell, excuse me, I thought you two should have enough in common to at least be able to walk and talk at the same damned time together,” he drawled mockingly. “You should take lessons from her, Sherra. Being in heat the way you are, you should have the sense to at least pay attention when she messes up. You might want to learn from it.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. Reality became limited to the dark, knowing depths of his eyes and the challenge sparkling there.

“You’re insane.” She tried to find the fury of moments before, but could barely manage to breathe past the shock instead.

He chuckled lightly, though the sound was mocking, filled with anger as he came to his feet and faced her with a tight smile.

“Am I?” he said. “Or do you think you can hide something else from me? Sorry, baby, I’m not nearly as stupid as you seem to think I am. And you want to know what else I’m aware of?” He leaned closer, his hands flattening on the table as he came almost nose-to-nose with her.

Her senses were filled with the scent of him. The smell of hot, furious male wrapped around her, nearly strangling her with hunger.

“What do you think you know?” she tried to snarl back, but her voice was weak, wary.

Now she understood the warning glimmer of anger that had burned in his eyes when she first entered the kitchen. Kane was flat pissed. And that was not a good thing.

“What I know,” he said with brutal clarity, “is that you’re in heat, Sherra. And I know who your mate is. I know, because it’s me.” He straightened then, staring back at her, seeming angrier at the knowledge than anything else. “Just like I know about the baby, the sterilization and your fucking stubbornness for the last few months. I know it all, and I’ll be damned if you’ll get away with any of it for even one day longer.”

Chapter Two

You could have heard a pin drop was so cliché, but it was the first thing that hit Sherra’s mind seconds after Kane’s furious announcement. She stood face to face with him, watching the muscle tick in his jaw, the flames that blazed in his eyes, and listened to the complete silence of the room. There were six others there besides them. Shocked, silent, watching her complete humiliation in stunned surprise.

Breathing harshly, she faced the man who had ripped her heart from her chest so many years ago, the man she had sworn to kill, only to learn her brother had nearly done the deed for her. She pulled her strength around her quickly, pride and pain and the determination that had helped her survive the years. Her head raised until she could stare back at him regally, making certain her expression was one of arrogant unconcern.

“Evidently, I didn’t feel it was any of your business, Kane,” she said shortly, pushing the words past her lips as she watched his anger grow. “Had I felt you needed to know any part of it, I would have informed you myself.” She glanced meaningfully at Merinus before her gaze returned to Kane. “It would appear I didn’t think you were on a need-to-know basis.”

She was very well aware of who had most likely spilled the secrets she had fought to keep. Merinus loved her family more than anyone, with the exception of Callan and their unborn child.

Kane’s lips curled back from his teeth in a silent snarl that would have done a Feline breed proud. “Guess again, kitten,” he snapped. “I don’t give a damn what you think I should or should not know. I gave you a chance to come to me, a year’s worth of chances, and you hid instead. Now you can face the consequences.”

Her laughter was mocking and brief. “Face the consequences? Sorry, Kane, I’ve made that trip already. It was a lousy one. I won’t pay again. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do. Callan can let me know what you decide about Farside Construction. I really don’t give a damn how you handle it.”

“Walk away from me and you’ll regret it.” His low warning had her halting the turn that would have allowed her to do just that.

She glanced over at him, seeing the determined cast of his hard expression, the raging fury in his dark blue eyes. She allowed her lips to lift in a bitter smile, let her gaze rake him coldly. “Regret it, Kane? I only wish I had done so the first time. I would have been so much better off.”

She let her gaze encompass her family then. Those she had been raised with, the two who had come into it through their matings with her brothers. She saw their disbelief, their sympathy and shock.

“Goodnight, guys. My portion of the entertainment for the night is over. Maybe I can do better tomorrow.”

Anger burned in her, warming her cheeks, trembling through her body as she let them look their fill.

“Do you think it will be that easy, Sherra?” Kane’s voice was rough, the fight for control throbbing in his voice. “Do you think for one damned minute I’ll let you get away with this?”