Skin Deep (17 page)

Kiera’s nipples hardened.

“Those lips of yours,” Ren smoothed a finger over Kiera’s lower lip, “are so plump and ripe for the picking. It got me thinking about other lips on your body.” She moved closer, causing Kiera to press her back against the wall. Sharp fangs protruded over Ren’s bottom lip. “And I’m dying for a taste.” Kiera was frozen, staring at the flawless complexion of the woman before her. “But more than that, there’s something special about you, Kiera. I can sense it with everything I have.” Ren reached forward and smoothed a lock of Kiera’s hair behind her ear.

“I can make all of this go away. I can make it so you never think of him again.”

“But—”

“Shh.” Ren brushed her fingers against the side of Kiera’s face. “You’ll never hunger for someone else. It will only be me and my body and the pleasure I can give you. You pretend that you don’t want Cain, but I know you do. And it’s hurting you. I can make all of that disappear.” Ren ran her hand down Kiera’s neck. Kiera focused on the Muse’s strange purple irises that seemed to swirl. “You can join me and my others. I could make you happy.” Kiera felt like she was being pulled out of herself, like all the pain of her life was leaving her, drifting off into another world.

“No.” Kiera hardly recognized the voice that spoke and was shocked when she realized it was hers. With a considerable amount of effort, she closed her eyes and shook her head.

“No?”

Kiera opened her eyes in time to see a look of utter shock on Ren’s face. “You denied the pull of my power.” Ren sat back on her heels, staring at Kiera with curiosity. “No human has ever done that before. Maybe I was wrong …” Ren’s voice trailed off as she tapped her chin.

“Huh?” Kiera tried to wrap her head around what had just happened.

Ren jumped to her feet and backed away, a smile replacing her shock. She lifted her head and sniffed the air, as if nothing had even happened. “I sent your man home before I came here. Looks like he actually did come straight home. Gotta bounce.” And she disappeared.

Kiera looked around the empty room.
Did a blue-haired Muse just try to make me one of her love slaves?
Kiera laughed out loud.
Seriously, what has my life come to?

I need a fucking drink.
It wasn’t the first night in the last five days Cain had coveted a nice cold beer or a shot of something, but he was too tired to think about hitting up the bar. He was surprised the damn place hadn’t closed down yet, since he and the boys hadn’t been in there all week.

With his decision to figure this Amari shit out before he tried to understand things with Kiera came the absolute need to stay away from her at all costs. There were multiple times when he was out searching with some of the base-liners that he found himself reaching for his phone, wanting to text her. He’d finally gotten her number, though he had claimed it was for safety reasons. He liked that she was a mere click of a button away. He hadn’t texted her, though. He always put his phone away before giving in.

She was too much of a temptation, especially now that she was willingly sleeping in his bed. The first night he came in to find her sleeping there, and not on the floor, he’d had to beat feet to the shower to take care of the straining erection in his pants. Jacking off helped for about five minutes. He wasn’t used to relieving his own steam, but found it acceptable—better than fucking some random chick, the thought of which repulsed him now.
Surprise, surprise.
Cain the man-whore became Cain the monogamous? Who’d have thought?

Cain stopped outside the closed door to his bedroom and took a deep breath. He was back early tonight. Ren had forced him to come home. “You look like someone shit on your life. Go home. Sleep off this funk or I’ll have a talk with the king.” The bitch’s eyes had sparkled mischievously with that comment.
Well, fuck.

He hoped Kiera was already asleep, so he could stare at her like fucking Lester the Molester then take his thirty-minute shower where he’d beat his brains until he spilled his life onto the white tile.

He opened the door slowly. Kiera stood in the middle of the white-carpeted floor wearing a tiny pink tank top and shorts. Seeing her lovely body made him suck in his breath. It’d only been a week since he’d seen her awake and in the light and yet he could never truly be prepared for her beauty. Her hair was swept into a messy ponytail and tendrils of that dark red mane curling around her face. Before he did something he regretted, that would only make her hate him more—like throwing her hot-ass body against the wall—he turned away and headed toward the bathroom.

Looks like it’s going to be a cold fucking shower tonight.

“Seriously?” The sound of her voice halted him in mid-step.

He wanted to turn around.
Don’t turn around.
He couldn’t be trusted with her, not in tiny white shorts that left nothing to the imagination. This was a dangerous place for him to be. The closer they came to the full moon, the more his body wanted, and the closer the animal in him came to the surface. Everything in him, his beast and all, wanted Kiera beneath him, their sweat-slicked bodies moving together as she cried out for more.

“What?” He growled like a man possessed, squeezing his hands into fists.

“You’re not even going to say anything to me?”

He shook his head in disbelief. “You wanna talk now?” He spun on his heel against all better judgment, facing her.

“Yeah, I do. Not a damn person in this place will talk to me, and the one who does is some sort of enslaving freak.” The sadness behind the frustration in her voice nearly had him regretting his threat to the others.
Almost.
He’d made his point clear to everyone—all fifty men, and Ren, too—that Kiera was to be guarded and protected at all costs. But that no one—
absolutely fucking no one—
was to interact with her in any sort of way that could be found inappropriate in the least. Even looking at her wrong was a death sentence.

“I told them not—wait, what did you say?” Cain breathed in deeply, taking in the varying scents of the room. Anger flooded his body when he recognized the rainwater scent of Ren.

“Has Ren been in here?” In less than a second he was standing before her. She jumped back in surprise. He captured her shoulders in his hands and pressed his nose against her forehead. “She touched you?”

“What difference does it make to you? I don’t see why you would care. It’s not like you have any real interest in me.”

“She’s fucking dead. Dead!” he yelled viciously. “How dare she touch what’s mine! I made it clear to that bitch! To all of them! You are mine, Kiera. Mine! No one else’s!”

He released Kiera and yanked the black tie loose from his neck. Ren’s broken and bloodied body flashed through his mind. He would fuck that bitch up.
No one touches what is mine!

“Excuse me? I belong to no one.”

Cain turned back to her. She spoke with calm precision, but he could see the anger in her eyes. “Least of all you. You make me miserable. Being stuck in this room with you …” She trailed off, shaking her head, disgust overwhelming the anger in her features.

“Whatever. We will talk about this when I get back. I have a Muse to kill.” He jerked his shirt over his head as he headed toward the door. The beast inside him roared in anguish, pacing back and forth, desperate to rip Ren to pieces.

“No. You’re going to talk to me now.”

Cain halted his movement.
Is she telling me what to do?
He would have laughed if he wasn’t so pissed. He spun on his heel. “Is that so? Let’s talk then. I make you miserable, right? Do tell me what it is that makes me so fucking bad you can’t even bear to sleep in the same room with me?” He jerked a hand through his hair. “Oh, but you’ll jump on Ren without even knowing a damn thing about her.”

“What is that supposed to mean? For your information, I didn’t jump on Ren. She came to see me and offered me the chance to be her lover.” Red clouded Cain’s vision. “And I turned her down, if you must know. I didn’t do a damn thing with her.”

“She’s still dead,” Cain growled.

“Oh, she’s dead, yet she’s the only person around here who has actually respected my wishes when I said no? Wow. Isn’t that ironic. Respect isn’t something people have nowadays, is it, Cain?” she hissed, her chest heaving.

She rejected Ren?
The knowledge that Ren had walked away with Kiera’s rejection made him feel a tiny bit better. He knew how persuasive the Muse could be. She had tried to tempt him at a time in his life when nothing could have invoked him and even he almost said yes. It wasn’t often anyone was able to deny the pull of her powers and the fact Kiera
had
was perplexing and undeniably satisfying.

“Oh, respect! I forget that you’re perfectly happy with Cryin’ Luke. “ He squeezed his fists by his sides in an attempt to calm himself.

The human was a different story. Even thinking about Luke made his skin crawl. Not only had Kiera wanted to see the motherfucker, she had demanded they release him, and to Cain’s consternation, they had done just that. He’d come home from a sweep of the outer city to find the human gone, released by Ren, who informed him they’d cleaned the man’s memory and he wouldn’t remember a thing.

“You would do anything for that fucking human! But not me!” He was shouting again before he realized what he was saying. Never in his thousand years had he felt less than adequate, not until now, not until this dazzling woman who wanted nothing to do with him had waltzed into a bar and changed everything.

“I go out every day trying to find the motherfucker who’s manning this ginger-killer operation, so you can be fucking safe! And this is what I get?” His feet carried him across the room. No casual stalking this time, but a predator who was tired of playing. “Loathing? And why? What did I do, besides want you?” he hissed. He looked down into her liquid-yellow eyes. He had her back against the dark bedroom wall. Trapped her. She had nowhere to run.

He pressed his body against hers, reveling in how right she felt against him and knew she could feel the hot thickness of his erection against her hip.

“What did you
do
? You really have no idea, do you?” Her words were bitter, angry, making him want to punch another hole in the wall. Couldn’t she feel it? The electricity that sparked when they touched, the molten lava that seemed to wash across his very soul?
Is it only me?
“You think you can just do whatever you want, take whatever you want, possess whoever you want?”

“Yes.” He bit it out like a curse, desperate to taste her pink plump lips. A look of determination settled into her features.

“This is why you’ll never have me.” A small video camera was forced into his face and Cain sucked in a breath at the sight of himself with his dick buried deep inside a chick’s mouth.

“How did you get this?”

“Not so confident now, are we?” The hatred in her voice ate at him.

“So fucking what? I’ve gotten a BJ before.” He rolled his eyes in frustration, though not before considering how he would feel if it was the other way around. His fingers dug into the plaster on either side of her head at the thought of another man inside her, before or after him … He shut his thoughts down with a shake of his head as his beast clawed for release.

“Look at the date, asshole.” He let his eyes zero in on the image of him face-fucking the woman. The date glowed brightly in tiny yellow letters. A little over a week ago
. Well, fuck.
He’d forgotten about his little rendezvous with the waitress at the bar.

“I wouldn’t date a man with a girlfriend, much less have sex with one.”

He nodded his head absently.
That little Vampire bitch recorded me. I’m gonna ruin her whole—

“Wait, what? Girlfriend? I don’t have—” The scene on the video was coming to a head, literally. Kiera still held it in front of his face as he watched himself growl and thrust his hips forward for the final time. It wasn’t an incoherent sound that escaped his lips as he shot his load into that bitch’s throat. It was a name.
“Kiera!”

Cain took a deep breath as he stood under the warm spray of the shower. He knew that no matter how long he lived, he would never forget the look on Kiera’s face when she heard her name on the video camera. She’d stood there, staring up at him with a look of wonder. He hadn’t waited to see what her next reaction would be, but pushed away and headed to the bathroom with his head spinning.

Was it not enough that he had practically begged her to fuck him? Now it was on tape, him calling out her name while he was with another woman. If that wasn’t desperation, then Cain didn’t know what the fuck was.

She was a first in his book for a lot of things, but now she’d become a first for something else—running. Yet here he was, hiding from her in the shower, licking his wounds like an injured kitten.
When did I become so damn soft?

The click of the bathroom door opening pricked his ears.
What the hell?
He knew it sure as hell wasn’t Kiera and any of the boys would have just yelled through the door. He pulled the curtain back and nearly passed out. Kiera stood before him, wholly naked, her long scarlet hair loose and curling around her shoulders, tickling at her pink nipples, so bright against her brown skin.

“Can I join you?”

He swallowed the lump in his throat. Her sultry voice carried across the room. He managed a nod, not trusting his mouth or his body.

Kiera itched to cover her body with her hands. It had been years since a man had seen her completely naked, but standing before Cain gave her courage.
He said my name. My name!
She remembered looking at the waitress’s name pin at the bar.
Leslie.
Not Kiera. Not even close. Cain’s gaze flitted over her body, sending goose bumps scattering across her skin, making her utterly wet between her legs. He didn’t even linger on her stomach, the glaring eyesore, but traced across her skin with the look of a hungry man.

She took a hesitant step forward. He watched her every move, following her like a hawk. A glance down revealed his rock-hard erection and she sucked in a breath at the sight of it, thick and full. The biggest she’d ever seen.

His arousal empowered Kiera, making her feel sexy in ways she never had before.
I made him hard. He wants me.
She lifted her hands and ran them over her chest as she came to stand a few feet away from the shower. He hadn’t moved a muscle, save for his eyes that followed her hands up and down her heated skin. She squeezed the thick globes of her breasts, reveling at the feel of her hardened nipples brushing against her palms.

His fist was clutched around the edge of the black curtain, his knuckles white from his grip. Her nipples puckered as she brushed against them, pretending it was his hands touching her.

The dim light of the bathroom cast a soft glow over his chiseled features. His thick jaw was clenched, his wet hair plastered against his forehead. Water droplets clung to his tan skin, as if they couldn’t bear the idea of slipping away from him. Kiera knew the feeling well.

A predatory rumble escaped his lips, making her body hum with anticipation.

“I want you.” No sooner had the words escaped her, he moved. Faster than her mind could process, he pulled her under the warm spray.

His lips met hers, sparking the sweet electricity she felt whenever he kissed her, sending arousal buzzing through her body. His tongue licked the seam of her lips and she gladly parted them, welcoming him into her mouth, savoring the feel of his skilled tongue against hers. Twisting, tangling, and dueling, like they had been kissing each other for years.

His heady sandalwood scent surrounded her. Both his hands were buried deep in her hair, the only place where their bodies met, aside from their mouths. After all this time, she was desperate to feel him, to touch his water-slicked body. Tentatively, she ran her hands up and down his torso, glorying in the perfectly sculpted muscles that jumped and bunched beneath her touch. He moaned into her mouth and, feeling emboldened, she pulled his tight body against hers, letting out a sigh of pleasure when his pulsing erection slid against her belly and became trapped between them.

He gave a feral snarl as he pushed her against the steamy tile. She groaned and gripped his waist tightly. This was what she had been waiting for, since the moment she ran out of the hallway in the bar. It was this she’d coveted all along. His hot body against hers, wanting
only
her.
This doesn’t mean he doesn’t want someone else. You’re just the flavor of the week, honey.
Her subconscious prodded her still, but she pushed the incessant voice away. She could listen to it tomorrow or the next day.

She snaked a hand between their bodies and gripped his large cock.

“No turning back this time. I won’t let you.”

The loss of his lips and the sound of his gravelly voice had her glancing up, staring into his green eyes. She almost agreed, willing to give him anything he asked as long as he would keep looking at her like that, keep kissing her like she was the only woman in the world.

Reality came crashing back and she almost forgot the thing she had to tell him. After they’d watched the end of the video, he’d pushed away from the wall and stalked off to the bathroom. Not before she saw his face awash with embarrassment, an expression that made her heart ache in the strangest way. It was that look, as much as the revelation of video, that had her grabbing her phone and searching for a number she knew she didn’t have.

She wanted to call Bettina, though it turned out she didn’t need her phone to get in touch with the Gypsy. She’d muttered the woman’s name with a curse and Bettina had appeared with a
pop
, wearing another long skirt, only this one was green, with a sparkly yellow shirt that was so bright Kiera had to look away.

“How can I help you, Kiera?” Bettina’s voice was dreamy like she remembered, floating to her with a soft lilt.

“How did you get here?”

“Is that really why you called me? To ask me questions far more complex than you have time for?”

Kiera parted her lips. She’d stared at the woman, who tucked her wild multicolored hair behind one ear.

“So, what is it?”

That was when she’d asked her question and gotten the answer she coveted.

“Cain, I want to give you pleasure … but I don’t want to have sex.” He stared down at her with confusion as droplets of water trailed down his face. “I’m not ready,” she tacked on, answering his unspoken question. “But I want to do … other things.”

The admission seemed to be enough for him. He said nothing as he pressed her harder against the wall, mashing his lips against hers. His hand came up between their bodies, fondling one of her breasts, twirling a finger around her nipple, as she bit down on his lip. He let out a hiss, seeming to feel as lost as she did.

She moved her hand up and down his straining erection, marveling at the feel of him. With each tug, the desire to taste him grew. She wanted him in her mouth, moaning, desperate to come, shouting her name. In a swift motion, she fell to her knees before him, letting her eyes focus on his thick, pulsing cock. She licked her lips with anticipation.

She wanted this more than she had ever wanted anything in her life. The realization nearly had her collapsing completely. She had wanted her body to be thin, perfect, and beautiful, but in this moment everything in her wanted nothing more than to have his stiff member in her mouth.
Who am I?

She glanced up at his body, taking in the sharp
V
at his hips, the stacked abs, his swirling tattoo that had her mouth watering. She was desperate to lick every inch of it, up to his broad chest before meeting his green eyes. Eyes that were glowing in the dim light of the shower.

“No.” The word on his lips confused her and she watched helplessly as he repeated it. His hands gripped her shoulders as he pulled her up from her kneeling position and lifted her off the ground. He cradled her against his chest as he turned the shower off.

It wasn’t until he had her laid out on the bed, rubbing a towel up and down her body, that she registered what was going on. A thick shot of embarrassment pulsed through her body.
He’s rejecting me?
Realization of what she’d done—gotten on her knees, offered herself … and he didn’t want her after all.
No sex, no nothing.
She used her hands to cover herself, trying to conceal every inch of her naked flesh, but failed miserably.

“Don’t hide from me.” The commanding tone of his voice had moisture pooling at her core. Her startled gaze jumped to meet his. There was grim determination in his eyes, as if he was fighting a battle with himself.
What is going on?
“I want to look at you.”

“But you brought me in here.”

“Yes.” He smiled tightly and placed one of his knees on the bed, his hands on either side of her legs.

“I refuse to let you give me a blowjob on the cold floor in a bathroom. Tonight is about you, my beauty.” The words rumbled from his chest, sparking a different kind of hunger inside her. “Tonight, I’ll love you.”

It was hours later that Kiera floated on a cloud. Her body was weightless with the ebb of mind-numbing pleasure. She flexed her back, rejoicing in the feel of Cain’s strong body spooned against hers.
“Tonight, I’ll love you.”
The promise whistled a path across her brain that left her feeling tingly in more ways than one.

She had been helpless after that. She was weak, but never had weakness felt so good. He’d fallen upon her body, kissing her from head to toe and paying attention to every part in between, save for the one most desperate for his attention. His tongue was like a heaven-sent machine, whispering across her skin, making her writhe. In the end, after more than an hour of teasing and kissing, she begged him. Begged him for the pleasure she so desperately needed. Pleasure she had been searching for her entire life.

He hadn’t asked for her words. He’d been silent the entire time, his eyes boring into hers with passion she didn’t understand, so consuming it was. Only when his lips fastened over her core, laving on her throbbing clitoris, did she finally give in to the blissful gratification she’d longed for. The spiraling pleasure snaked through her body, attaching to every nerve ending and sucking her into sweet oblivion.

When the last tremors of sensuality drifted from her body, she tried to move, to pull away from his grasp. She wanted to give him what he’d given her, to have him in her mouth at last, but he denied her. His mouth fell back on her sensitive sex with desperation that had her digging her toes into the mattress and her hands into the damp strands of his hair.

Even after it was all said and done, after she’d had more orgasms than she could count, he still wouldn’t let her pleasure him—something that bothered her, though she’d never thought that would ever be the case. When she’d been with Roth, he had always demanded his pleasure from her, rarely taking the time to indulge in her desires.

The sight of Cain’s body when he stood after crouching over her sent a wave of shock running through her body. His cock was still hard and looked to be throbbing. Even after all the time he’d spent pleasuring her, he was still turned on.
He liked what he was doing to me?
Roth had always made it seem like a chore, a burden. Yet the proof was there on Cain’s body, which made her even more desperate to please him.

She sat up and reached for his pulsing erection, but he pushed her hands away. He hopped out of bed and grabbed something on the floor before climbing next to her and curling his body around hers from behind. His hand snaked across her body and laid her baby blanket by her hand. She sucked in a breath at the sight of it. Every morning, after he’d moved her back into bed, she’d always found her little blanket next to her face, where she liked it, so she could feel the worn fibers against her skin. He never said anything, but he seemed to understand how important it was. Roth had never understood.

“Say we can share the bed. My beast and I long to be close to you,” he begged against her ear as if in daze. She was too shocked to say anything.

He fell asleep almost instantly, a strange rumble emanating from his chest, barely audible to her ears and vibrating softly against her back.
He’s purring
. A strong emotion swam through her body, one she refused to identify.